Part of Weekend Classics: Animal Kingdom
Shot over the course of three years on all seven continents, this wildly popular documentary from French actor/filmmaker Jacques Perrin takes the observational doc a step further with remarkable ingenuity as the camera takes flight with several species of birds on their annual migrations. Screening in 35mm
“This astonishing, utterly entrancing movie is unlikely to be surpassed in our lifetime. WINGED MIGRATION leaves you in a state of stunned, exhilarated awe.” —Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
“It may sound facetious, but WINGED MIGRATION provides such an intense vicarious experience of being a flapping airborne creature with the wind in its ears that you leave the theater feeling like an honorary member of another species.” —Stephen Holden, New York Times
“Before there was Ralph Vaughan Williams' ‘The Lark Ascending’ or the gospel spiritual ‘I'll Fly Away,’ there was the bird itself, twittering in a tree or, even more remarkable, taking improbable flight, the movement of its wings stirring the air with an imperceptible thrum. Nothing that man creates can ever live up to the real thing, but you can't blame him for trying. WINGED MIGRATION brings us directly to the source: Birds are not just the movie's stars, but its whole universe. They inspire in Perrin and his crew, and in us, not just awe but humility. You'll never look at them the same way again.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Salon